Don't Let Me Down

An excerpt from a now deleted blog post from Juliana on her official site in 2009:

Do you know what T.Rex’s problem is? The lyrics. I was listening to “Electric Warrior” just now to make sure I had my facts straight, in order to say what I’m about to say, and, well it’s so true what is generally accepted about Marc Bolan and his band: the lyrics are really just pretty silly and kind of seem like afterthoughts. But I love the sound and the guitars and the production. (Doesn’t everyone?)

I was listening in order to be sure I knew what song I’d ripped off in my solo at the end of “Don’t Let Me Down.” “Mambo Sun” is the one. At about 3:20 in my song I kind of borrow from “Mambo Sun”’s solo for about four seconds, at which point I go off and do my own spazzed-out attention-deficit-disorder thing.

And that is why I thanked T.Rex in the thank-you list on “In Exile Deo.”

This song of mine is a song about writing songs. About writing when uninspired and frustrated by being uninspired. “Looking for words at the end of the road under a rock” is what it sometimes feels like to be trying so hard and wanting so bad to make something brilliant and transcendent or even just cool, clever, catchy, whatever, when it seems to me like I’ve done and tried everything I can to pull out or tap into something great but still nothing worthwhile is manifesting. But I refuse to give up; I always want and need to push through the crap to the hidden well of badassness. “Hitting the wall/do it all night” is what I do. I work until the sun comes up, banging my metaphorical head against the wall over and over again, if I have to. I get to the end of a page I’ve manically scribbled on and doodled on and then I turn the paper over to the clean side and start again.